# Should a Trademark Be Registered in a Personal or Company Name?

> Personal or company name for your trademark in Turkey? Partner exits, company sales, licensing, the TRY 5,960 transfer cost, inheritance and franchising.

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- Last updated: 2026-09-22
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The short answer to whether a trademark should be registered in a personal or company name is this: **register it in the name of whoever actually uses the trademark and whoever needs to hold it ten years from now.** In businesses with several partners, start-ups that will raise investment and companies that plan to franchise, that is almost always the company. For sole traders and brands built around a person's own name, holding the trademark personally can be a deliberate and sound choice.

Below you will find a decision table by business type, followed by what happens when a partner leaves or the company is sold, licensing to your own company, the cost of a later transfer, the accounting impact, and inheritance, divorce and partnership-dispute scenarios.

## Which Ownership Fits Which Type of Business?

The right owner follows from how the business is structured; there is no single answer that fits everyone. The table below summarizes the seven most common situations, and the reasoning behind each row is explained in the sections that follow.

| Type of business | Recommended owner | Reason |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Sole proprietorship (single owner) | The owner as an individual | A sole proprietorship has no separate legal personality, so the application is filed in the owner's name anyway |
| Company not yet incorporated | File in the founder's name, assign to the company after incorporation | The priority date does not wait for incorporation; an application can be assigned before registration |
| Single-shareholder limited or joint-stock company | The company (or, as a deliberate choice, the founder plus a license) | The trademark becomes a company asset; the license model needs an extra agreement and recordal |
| Company with several partners | The company | The trademark stays with the company if a partner leaves or a dispute arises |
| Start-up raising investment | The company | Investors expect intellectual property to be owned by the company in due diligence |
| Chain that will franchise | The franchisor company | Authority to sublicense and quality control sit in one place |
| Personal-name brand (consultant, designer, trainer) | The individual, with a license to the company | The person's name and reputation cannot be separated from them; the trademark stays with the person even if the company changes |

These recommendations are a starting point. In family businesses, holding structures or companies with foreign shareholders, the decision should be made together with the shareholders' agreement.

## What Is the Difference Between Personal and Company Ownership?

The core difference is **whose assets the trademark belongs to**. Registration in a personal name means the trademark right forms part of an individual's personal estate. Registration in a company name means the right belongs to a legal entity that exists separately from its shareholders.

Under Article 148 of Industrial Property Law No. 6769 (SMK), a trademark right can be assigned, pass by inheritance, be licensed, be pledged and be attached by creditors, and these transactions can take place independently of the business. In other words, a trademark follows the creditors, heirs and decisions of whoever it is registered to. The question of a trademark in personal or company name is really the question of "on whose balance sheet, and at whose risk, should this value sit?"

The difference is invisible in daily use and only surfaces when something in the business changes:

- **Control:** With a personally owned trademark, the only decision-maker is the person in the register; with a company-owned trademark, decisions are taken by the company's governing bodies.
- **Continuity:** A company-owned trademark is unaffected by changes among the shareholders; a personally owned trademark is tied to events in the owner's life (death, divorce, debt).
- **Exposure to debt:** A trademark is exposed to the creditors of whichever estate it sits in.
- **Cost:** TÜRKPATENT (Turkish Patent and Trademark Office) fees do not depend on whether the applicant is an individual or a company; the difference arises in later assignment and licensing transactions.

## In Whose Name Should a Company With Several Partners Register Its Trademark?

Where several partners have put work and capital into a business, the trademark should be registered **in the company's name**. Registering it in one partner's name hands that partner personal leverage over the company's most visible asset, and that leverage is usually used at the tensest moment of the relationship.

### What happens if a partner leaves?

If the trademark is registered to the company, the departing partner takes only their shares; the trademark, the products, the signage and the goodwill stay with the company. If the trademark is registered to the departing partner, the picture is reversed: to keep using the trademark it has used for years, the company has to obtain an assignment or a license from that person. All the bargaining power lies with the person in the register.

### What happens if the company is sold?

If the company is sold through a share transfer, a company-owned trademark changes hands together with the company; because the legal entity that owns the trademark stays the same, no assignment needs to be recorded, and if the trade name changes, only the register is updated. If the trademark is registered to a founder, the buyer will require it to be assigned to the company as a condition of the sale. We explain how buyers carry out this check in our guide to [trademark due diligence before a purchase](https://www.webx.net.tr/en/blog/buying-a-trademark-due-diligence).

### Is joint ownership by the partners a good middle way?

The partners can own the trademark personally and jointly (co-ownership in shares), but it is rarely a good solution. Under Article 147 of the SMK, if no attorney is appointed, procedures before the Office are carried out by a joint representative; under Article 148(3), if one co-owner sells their share to a third party, the others have a right of first refusal. Decisions affecting the trademark as a whole, such as assignment and licensing, as a rule require the co-owners to act together. When the partnership breaks down, this structure can turn into a lock that nobody can operate alone.

## Personal Ownership in a One-Person Business: Advantages and Risks

For an entrepreneur working alone, holding the trademark personally is **legitimate and often practical**. In a sole proprietorship there is no other option: since there is no separate legal personality, the application is filed in the owner's name, and we cover the filing steps in our article on [trademark registration for sole proprietors](https://www.webx.net.tr/en/blog/trademark-registration-for-sole-proprietors). A founder who is the only shareholder of a limited or joint-stock company, however, has a genuine choice.

Three advantages stand out. First, the trademark stays apart from any financial difficulty the company may face; as a rule, the company's creditors pursue the company's assets. Second, even if the company closes or the founder continues through a new company, the trademark remains with the person. Third, by licensing the trademark to the company, the founder sets the terms of its use.

The risks are discussed less often but weigh more. The trademark can be attached for the owner's personal debts, it passes to the heirs on the owner's death, and the company becomes merely the user, not the owner, of the brand it has built up for years. If the relationship between founder and company is not in writing, the question of on what basis the company uses the trademark goes unanswered at the first disagreement. The practical rule is simple: if you choose personal ownership, the company's use must always be tied to a written license.

## How Can a Personally Owned Trademark Be Used by a Company?

The right tool is a **license agreement**: the trademark stays with the founder, and the company uses it within the scope set by the agreement. Under Article 24 of the SMK, a license can be exclusive or non-exclusive; unless the agreement says otherwise, the license is non-exclusive, and unless otherwise agreed, the licensee cannot grant sublicenses.

The license model has two important consequences. On the positive side, the company's use of the trademark counts as use by the owner under Article 9(3) of the SMK, so the five-year use requirement is met this way. On the cautionary side is recordal: under Article 148(5) of the SMK, rights arising from legal transactions that are not recorded in the register cannot be asserted against third parties acting in good faith. Under TÜRKPATENT's 2026 trademark fee schedule, the fee for recording a license is TRY 9,870 (item 02.01.09).

At a minimum, the agreement should cover the scope (which goods and services), the term, the fee or the absence of a fee, quality control, and what happens to use when the license ends. You will find the clauses in detail in our [trademark license agreement guide](https://www.webx.net.tr/en/blog/trademark-licence-agreement-guide). The tax consequences of a license fee are specific to each business, so review them with your accountant or tax adviser.

## How Much Does a Later Transfer to the Company Cost?

A trademark taken out in a personal name can always be assigned to the company later, but the assignment is **not a free formality**. As of 2026, the cost has three components: the TÜRKPATENT recordal fee for the assignment (item 02.01.06 — TRY 5,960), the notary's fee, and the attorney's service fee if you work with one. Under Article 148(4) of the SMK, an assignment agreement is valid only if it is notarized; an agreement without notarization does not transfer the trademark.

In brief, the steps are as follows:

1. **Register check:** the current owner, the term of protection, and any recorded license or pledge are reviewed.
2. **Agreement:** the parties, the trademark number, whether the assignment is full or partial, and the price are set out.
3. **Notarization:** the agreement is notarized; this step is a condition of validity.
4. **Recordal request:** recordal of the assignment is requested from TÜRKPATENT and the fee is paid.
5. **Publication:** the assignment is entered in the register and published in the Official Trademark Bulletin.

Two points matter here. First, Article 148(8) of the SMK states that these rules also apply to applications, so an application can be assigned to the company before the trademark is registered, and the filing date is preserved. Second, a founder's assignment to their own company is still a transaction that is booked in the accounts and can have tax consequences; settle the price and the way it is recorded with your accountant in advance.

We describe the procedure step by step in [how to assign a trademark in Turkey](https://www.webx.net.tr/en/blog/how-to-assign-a-trademark-in-turkey); if you prefer to have everything from the agreement to the recordal handled in one place, see our [trademark assignment service](https://www.webx.net.tr/en/hizmetler/marka-devri). Current amounts should always be checked against the TÜRKPATENT fee schedule, which is updated every year; official fees do not include an attorney's service fee.

## What Does Ownership Change for Accounting and Tax?

The short answer: whoever the trademark is registered to is also **the party that accounts for the asset and the expense**. A trademark registered to the company can be carried among the company's assets; whether the registration cost should be capitalized or expensed directly depends on the company's accounting policy and the applicable rules.

A problem often seen in practice is a trademark registered to the founder while the costs are invoiced to the company. The company then appears to have spent money on a right it does not own, and the link between the expense and the business becomes questionable. We set out the general framework in our article on [accounting for trademark registration costs](https://www.webx.net.tr/en/blog/accounting-for-trademark-registration-costs); always decide the entries for your own business together with your accountant.

This article does not give a definitive tax ruling. What can be said is this: the ownership decision can be corrected later from an accounting point of view, but every correction means an assignment or a license and the paperwork that goes with it.

## What Happens in Inheritance, Divorce and Partnership Disputes?

A personally owned trademark is directly affected by major events in its owner's life; with a company-owned trademark, those events only reach the company's shares. Three scenarios make the difference clear.

### Scenario 1: The owner dies

The trademark passes to the heirs by inheritance (SMK Article 148(1)). If there are several heirs, the trademark has to be managed jointly until the estate is divided, and recording the transfer on death in the register is a separate procedure (item 02.01.08 — TRY 5,550). Meanwhile, the business may struggle to explain with whose permission it is using the trademark. Had the same trademark been owned by the company, the death would only have meant the shares passing to the heirs, and the trademark would have stayed with the company without any change in the register. For the procedure, see our article [can a trademark be inherited](https://www.webx.net.tr/en/blog/can-a-trademark-be-inherited).

### Scenario 2: Divorce

A trademark is a property right with economic value. How assets acquired during a marriage are divided on divorce is governed by the matrimonial property rules of the Turkish Civil Code, and a personally owned trademark that has gained value may well become a point of contention in that calculation. Because the outcome differs from case to case, a lawyer practicing family law should be consulted for a concrete assessment. With a company-owned trademark, the dispute concerns the company's shares rather than the trademark itself.

### Scenario 3: A partnership dispute

When partners fall out and the trademark is registered to one of them, the only tool left to the other partners is the contract; without a written license or shareholders' agreement, the matter can turn into a long legal dispute. If the trademark is registered to the company, the dispute is resolved through shareholding and management rights, and the trademark keeps being used throughout.

## What Do Investors and Franchisees Expect?

Investors and franchisees expect the same thing: **that the trademark belongs to the company they are contracting with**. In pre-investment legal due diligence, investors look for intellectual property to be held by the company rather than by the founders. If the trademark is in a founder's name, the assignment is often written in as a closing condition of the investment; setting things up correctly from the start costs less than doing it under time pressure.

Franchise systems face one more obstacle. Under Article 24(3) of the SMK, a licensee cannot grant sublicenses unless the agreement provides otherwise. If the trademark is registered to the founder and the company is only a licensee, the company's ability to let franchisees use the trademark depends on an express right to sublicense in the license agreement. For a business that will build a franchise chain, the cleanest structure is for the trademark to be registered to the franchisor company.

We have gathered what filing in the wrong name leads to, together with the other strategic errors beyond ownership, in our article on [trademark registration mistakes](https://www.webx.net.tr/en/blog/trademark-registration-mistakes).

## Should You Wait If the Company Has Not Been Formed Yet?

No, do not wait. Incorporating a company can take weeks, and in that time someone else can file for the name; in Turkey, priority is determined by the filing date. The right sequence is to file in the founder's name and, once the company is formed, assign the application or the registered trademark to it.

We cover filing without a company in [registering a trademark without a company](https://www.webx.net.tr/en/blog/registering-a-trademark-without-a-company), and the right moment to file in our guide [when to register a trademark](https://www.webx.net.tr/en/blog/when-to-register-a-trademark). Read together, the two articles show how the decision on a trademark in personal or company name fits with the question of timing.

## Conclusion

Key takeaways:

- A trademark should be registered in the name of whoever needs to hold it as the business develops.
- For a company with several partners, a start-up raising investment and a franchise chain, the right owner is the company.
- If you choose personal ownership, the company's use must be tied to a written license recorded in the register.
- A later assignment is possible; as of 2026 it requires a TRY 5,960 recordal fee, notarization and documentation.
- If the company has not been formed yet, do not wait: file in the founder's name and assign the application later.
- Plan the accounting and tax consequences together with your accountant or tax adviser.

### Would you like to register your trademark in the right name?

Working with trademark attorneys authorized before TÜRKPATENT, Webx makes the applicant decision with you as part of the [trademark registration](https://www.webx.net.tr/en/hizmetler/marka-tescil) process, taking your shareholding structure and your investment and franchise plans into account, and handles any assignment and license recordals within the same file where needed. Tell us briefly about your situation through our [contact page](https://www.webx.net.tr/en/iletisim), and we will clarify the ownership structure that suits you and what it will cost.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### Can I change the applicant after filing a trademark application?

The applicant cannot be changed through a simple correction request; the only route is to assign the application. Article 148(8) of the SMK states that the assignment rules also apply to applications. A notarized assignment agreement is therefore signed and recordal of the assignment is requested; under the 2026 fee schedule the recordal fee is TRY 5,960. The filing date and priority of the application pass to the new owner with it.

### Can I file a trademark application jointly with my spouse or business partner?

Yes. Several people can apply for the same trademark together and hold it in shares. If no trademark attorney is appointed, procedures before the Office are handled by a joint representative, and if one co-owner sells their share, the others have a right of first refusal. Before filing, agree in a written protocol how decisions will be taken and what happens if the relationship ends.

### Does a trademark need to be re-registered if the company changes its trade name?

No. A change of trade name does not change the owner of the trademark; the same legal entity simply continues under a different name. What you need to do is request that the new name be recorded in the register. The TÜRKPATENT fee schedule has no separate item for a change of name; confirm current practice with the Office or your attorney beforehand. An up-to-date register ensures that notifications and renewal procedures reach the right party.

### Which company should own the trademarks in a group of companies?

In groups with several companies, a common approach is to hold the trademarks in a single group company (often the parent) and license them to the operating companies. The portfolio is then managed from one place, and the renewal and watch calendar does not become fragmented. The tax side of intra-group license fees is a separate question, so discuss the structure with your accountant or tax adviser before setting it up.

### What happens to a company-owned trademark if the company is liquidated?

The trademark is an asset that must be dealt with in the liquidation like any other. If it is to go to a partner or a third party, that should be done through a notarized agreement and recordal before the liquidation is completed. A trademark left behind stays in the register under an owner that no longer operates; nobody may be able to carry out renewals, and the trademark can quietly lapse.

### Can a company with a foreign shareholder register the trademark in the name of its parent abroad?

Yes. The trademark can be registered in the name of the parent company abroad and licensed to the Turkish company. In that case, under Article 160(3) of the SMK, an applicant domiciled outside Turkey can only be represented before the Office by a trademark attorney. Because the Turkish company uses the trademark with the owner's consent, its use counts as use by the owner for the use requirement.

### Can I transfer a trademark registered in my name to my company free of charge?

Legally, an assignment can be made for consideration or free of charge; whichever you choose, the notarization and recordal requirements stay the same. A free assignment and a paid one can have different accounting and tax consequences, so get your accountant's view before writing the price into the agreement. A realistic price also avoids raising questions later in an investor's due diligence.

### In whose name should the trademark be for government support programs?

Support programs may require the business receiving the support and the trademark applicant to be the same person; applying for company support for a trademark registered to an individual can cause problems. Because program conditions and ceilings change periodically, the safest course is to check the current conditions of the program you plan to use before deciding who the applicant will be.

## Related Resources

- [Trademark Registration](https://www.webx.net.tr/en/hizmetler/marka-tescil): Explains how a trademark application is handled before TÜRKPATENT, from the preliminary search and class selection to the registration certificate.
- [Trademark Assignment](https://www.webx.net.tr/en/hizmetler/marka-devri): Describes transferring a trademark by notarized agreement and recording it at TÜRKPATENT, including partial transfer, inheritance and merger records.
- [Can You Register a Trademark Without a Company?](https://www.webx.net.tr/en/blog/registering-a-trademark-without-a-company): Yes, you can register a trademark in Turkey without a company: file in your own name, then assign or license it to the company. 2026 fees, risks, co-founders.
- [How to Register a Trademark as a Sole Proprietor](https://www.webx.net.tr/en/blog/trademark-registration-for-sole-proprietors): How does a sole proprietor register a trademark? Registration in an individual's name, tax ID rules, transfer on incorporation, inheritance and seizure risk.
- [How to Assign a Trademark in Turkey: Step-by-Step Guide](https://www.webx.net.tr/en/blog/how-to-assign-a-trademark-in-turkey): A trademark is assigned in Turkey by a notarised agreement and recordal with TÜRKPATENT. Step-by-step process, contract terms, partial assignment and 2026 fee.
- [Trademark Licence Agreement: Turning Your Brand Into Revenue](https://www.webx.net.tr/en/blog/trademark-licence-agreement-guide): What is a trademark licence agreement? Exclusive vs non-exclusive licences, royalty models, registering the agreement, quality control, and key clauses.
- [When Should You Register a Trademark? A Guide to Getting the Timing Right](https://www.webx.net.tr/en/blog/when-to-register-a-trademark): When to register a trademark: once the name is final and before you share it. Six-month priority for trade fairs and exports, launch risks and a weekly plan.
- [How Is Trademark Registration Expense Recorded in Accounting?](https://www.webx.net.tr/en/blog/accounting-for-trademark-registration-costs): Accounting for trademark registration costs: capitalizing intangible assets, amortization, VAT treatment, and separating official fees from service fees.